Listen to the Rain

Has it really been two weeks since I posted? Wow.

Lately, sashagee has been playing a ton of Infinity Nikki, the open-world magical dress-up game. I've been playing a lot of Project Zomboid, the zombie apocalypse survival game. That led me to updating that old "egirl and her podcaster boyfriend" meme:



She's playing a game where you have to help the faewish sprites grant wishes and where you have one outfit that lets you pet floofs after which they bounce around and wag their tails. I'm playing a game where the opening text is a black screen with the words THIS IS HOW YOU DIED. She's playing a game where you have to find the materials to craft the Wishful Aurosa Miracle Outfit to help save Miraland and I'm playing a game where I'm tearing apart furniture in houses to help barricade the windows on my farm-outside-of-town base. She's playing a game where where she traipses through magical forests and fantastic underground grottos, I'm playing a game where walking through the woods between my farmhouse and the nearby town is tense because there could be a zombie that wandered away from the others that'll try to get me.

She's also playing a game where all conflict is solved with "styling challenges" about competing fashions because an ancient curse means anyone who acts violently toward another human is stricken with crippling and possibly lethal pain and there are plots in the series about taking combat drugs to overcome this pain so you can successfully kill people, so I don't want to make the differences too obvious.

I was going to play Citizen Sleeper this month (still need to write my Timberborn review) and still might, but Project Zomboid is sure taking up a lot of my time.

Re: the listening entry in my last post, I was listening to their episodes on Dracula and they brought up a point I hadn't thought about, relating to the very beginning of the book. We know that the coachman that comes to pick up Harker is Dracula in disguise, and that Dracula lives alone in his castle except for his vampire brides. He carries in Harker's luggage himself as well. And soon after arriving, he offers Harker dinner:

The light and warmth and the Count’s courteous welcome seemed to have dissipated all my doubts and fears. Having then reached my normal state, I discovered that I was half famished with hunger; so making a hasty toilet, I went into the other room.

I found supper already laid out. My host, who stood on one side of the great fireplace, leaning against the stonework, made a graceful wave of his hand to the table, and said:—

“I pray you, be seated and sup how you please. You will, I trust, excuse me that I do not join you; but I have dined already, and I do not sup.”

[…]

The Count himself came forward and took off the cover of a dish, and I fell to at once on an excellent roast chicken. This, with some cheese and a salad and a bottle of old Tokay, of which I had two glasses, was my supper. During the time I was eating it the Count asked me many questions as to my journey, and I told him by degrees all I had experienced.
-Bram Stoker, Dracula

So, with no servants, who cooked the chicken?

…

Dracula cooked the chicken.

So there was a dust-up on social media about sanity rules in RPGs recently, kicked off by this tweet:



And of course, since Twitter is a terrible medium for most discussion, everything descended into hell. But I'm going to talk about it here where I can write as much as I want!

( Unleash the eldritch madness )

Definitely Appearance 0. 🎲

Yesterday, I went to go see Nosferatu with liszante at the Davis Theatre with live organ accompaniment by Jay Warren. The theater even had remnant organ pipes still up on the walls from when there was an organ installed in it, though the actual performance was done using samples.

It's been a very long time since I'd seen a silent movie--not since Metropolis back when I was a university student--and I had forgotten how exaggerated the style of acting was. I couldn't help but think of miming, especially with Hutter and Knock's performances. The film is much less horror for modern audiences than it would have been a century ago due to that. Often, when Count Orlok was looming and Hutter would reel back with an expression of horror, frantically looking around the room, the audience laughed. Admittedly, I did too. To modern sensibilities it was ridiculous, but it certainly did an effective job of conveying their emotions, especially accompanied with Warren's music.

People also laughed at the scene of Count Orlok just...casually strolling through the streets with a coffin full of grave earth under one arm. I really want to know how that played to 1920s audiences.

The movie was pretty effective at selling the mood of creeping doom, especially later, with the scenes of the town officials marking the doors of the "plague"-stricken houses and the procession of coffins being carried through the streets. liszante also told me there was a long scene of the ship sailing into Wisborg cut with scenes of Hutter riding back to town but, uh, I was asleep for that. Live music, no matter the context, no matter the genre, makes me sleepy. Even when I went to a Within Temptation concert back in March, I ended up getting sleepy by the end. But I rallied for the final act.

I hadn't realized that Nosferatu was literally Dracula with the serial numbers filed off either. But once Knock the property agent showed up, I figured it out.

And...antisemitism. I don't think it's Nazi propaganda or anything, but I couldn't help but notice that it's the property agent specifically who falls under Count Orlok's sway and, indeed, the way that an Eastern European man who looks ugly and distinctive is literally sucking the blood of good German women. That rendered some of the scenes later on the movie more uncomfortable for me than they might have been for most of the audience, because regardless of Murnau's intentions, the imagery was definitely there.

He was a brilliant director, though. I've seen plenty of stills of Count Orlok's shadow climbing the staircase and the count vanishing when hit by the rays of the sun, but in the theater, accompanied by the organ, they were still effective.

In summary, I'm saddened that Der Totenvogel isn't the name of a metal band. And I can see why Nosferatu survived down through the ages and is regarded as a cinematic classic.

Last year, I played in mutantur's Call of Cthuhlu game where we ran through The Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man, and while I didn't do full writeups of the sessions, I did take notes and save them. And now I'll leave them here.

( The Sense of the Sleight of Hand Man )

You would think that Darkest Dungeon would be the perfect game for me. And it is--this isn't a bad review, so don't think I'm tipping my hand early--but while I leaped on the kickstarter the instant I learned about it, I withdrew my pledge when they added in a backer-exclusive class. I'm fine with kickstarter-exclusive cosmetics or silly, non-gameplay-affecting content, but the idea of a mechanical benefit to kickstarter supports sat badly enough with me that I was willing to forgo playing the game entirely. Then I played other games, and it faded from my consciousness.

Until 2016, when ping816 suddenly bought it as a present for me. And then I learned that the kickstarter had suffered from unclear communication and the backer class was the Musketeer, a cosmetic skin over the top of the Arbalest with all the same mechanics, so I needn't have been so suspicious in the first place. Well, live and learn.

And then I was playing Baldur's Gate II and the Legend of Zelda games, but last November, now that I was finally all the way up to Breath of the Wild, I loaded it up. The screen went black, and then I was greeted with the opening cinematic:

Ruin has come to our family.

You remember our venerable house, opulent and imperial, gazing proudly from its stoic perch above the moor. I lived all my years in that ancient rumor shadowed manor, fattened by decadence and luxury, and yet I began to tire of... conventional extravagance...

Hell. Yes.


( Read more... )

Also, if you want to hear what I sound like / a bit of RP, I did a Facebook thread where I chronicled my progress through this game, and I recorded the last update from the Heir after I beat the game. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out.

Capitalization in original.

On Monday I went to my first Deathscribe performance! I've been to two other Wildclaw Theatre productions, their adaptation of The Shadow over Innsmouth five years ago--also, apparently they quoted my post on their website--and one called Future Echoes. I liked Shadow over Innsmouth a lot and was neutral on Future Echoes, but Deathscribe is kind of their headline event. I mean, they've been doing it for eleven years, and it still sells out. I only got tickets because worldbshiny (one of the Foley artists) posted secret tickets for friends of the staff and I snagged one that meant I got a seat. And the only open seat left upstairs when I arrived was right next to where stephen_poon and abby_the_hairapist were standing, so.

After an opening performance entitled "Please Stand By," involving a disaster where unknown radiation spreads around the world and causes psychotic behavior as expressed through someone flipping through radio stations, the actual Deathscribe got underway. There were five short plays and they were as follows:

1. The Forbidden Room: This was probably my least favorite of the five. Two girls live with their father, who has forbidden them from entering a certain room, after their mother "went away." One day, while playing hide and seek, the younger sister hides in the room and hears a voice speaking to her. Thinking it's her mother, she leads her elder sister into the room, and her elder sister reveals that it's actually their grandmother. The grandmother wants a more suitable host body, as the saying goes, but the sisters fight her off by stealing her necklace and escape. Or do they
   
   (they don't)
   
   It wasn't bad, it was just kind of by-the-numbers. The sound design was good, especially the echoing effects and volume, which did a good job of conveying being in a room crowded with dusty relics and also a murderghost. And I liked the performance of the grandmother a lot, but the story wasn't interesting to me and the "twist" was obvious from a mile away. Oh well.


2. Migraine: A woman suffers from severe migraines and also suffers from having an inconsiderate asshole boyfriend, a condescending asshole boss, and a dismissive asshole doctor. One day, she hears her migraine talking to her, and the migraine urges her to take control of her life. Stand up for herself. Stop being such a doormat. Tell off her boyfriend. Demand her doctor listen to her. Brutally murder her boss.
   
   This was stephen_poon and abby_the_hairapist's favorite of the five, and I liked it too, but I didn't think it was particularly horrific. The tone was more comedic, especially whenever the migraine was talking. It's fridge horror, I guess, since the migraine's characterization was a thrill-seeker who just wants someone to live to their fullest potential with no thought whatsoever to the consequences of anyone else around them. That's fine with the boyfriend, who was an asshole and breaking up with him was great, but cutting the doctor's cheek with a scalpel and murdering the boss with a blunt force trauma after projectile vomiting all over him is perhaps going too far. Very well acted, though, and I really liked the vomit sound effects (done by pouring canned beans into a bucket).


3. Whisper Trigger: This was my favorite of the selections because it involves ASMR, and I'm actually listening to an ASMR-inducing podcast right now, so.
   
   One of two roommates has a terrible time sleeping, so his roommate sends him a couple ASMR links to help. Neither of them help, but the third link, of a woman in a mermaid costume talking in low tones about slipping beneath the waves and letting the water take him, helps a lot. His roommate denies sending the third link and when he tries to show it to her there's nothing there, but the other links do nothing for him, so the next night he listens to part two and is told to give in to the water, let the water fill his lungs, and succumb. In the morning he talks about how well he slept and his roommate says she had to yell at him to shut up multiple times because he was coughing and sputtering all night. That night, he listens to part three, and does not wake up again.
   
   The mermaid's actress and sound effects triggered my ASMR, so obviously I was going to be partial to this one. But I also liked the sound effects of the waves, and the way that the roommate's pounding on the door and pleading for him to wake up got fainter and fainter as the mermaid and the water grew louder and louder. It's the way I'd want to die, slipping slowly into darkness. I mean, minus the water in my lungs and the drowning. But you can't always get what you want.


4. Floris: This was the most overly horrific selection. It's set as a debriefing of three nurses in an elderly care facility after a fire consumes part of it. They got a transfer from another facility that also suffered a fire, named Floris, who sits in her wheelchair and talks about her son outside and how he's burning. The nurses manage to put her to bed, after which she escapes, terrifies her roommate, and chases the nurses back to the nursing station while bounding down the corridor on her hands and demanding to know where her son is. One of the nurses distracts her and leads her to back to the cafeteria, claiming that her son is outside the heavy iron doors out to the courtyard, and then runs as the heat and light grows behind her.
   
   My favorite part here was the framing, with cuts between the three nurses giving statements to an investigator and the three of them in the thick of the incident. This is the one I think would most have benefited from being a short film. A lot of the horror was in Floris's movements and behavior, and they did a good job of conveying it through sound effects (hands slapping on tile floor and so on), but seeing it on the screen would be great.
   
   ...for someone else. I don't do well with visual horror.


5. Subject #9: This was the most overtly comedic, though only once the twist is revealed. Two scientists are working on an animal experiment, saying that they have a little over three weeks to succeed or the master will kill them for incompetence. They successfully implant a power source without killing the animal, and when they turn it on, the radiance blinds the poor beast. One day they find it hovering in its cell, staring at nothing. But eventually they report their success and show the master the results, and on the final day they turn on the power and the master laughs maniacally at their success: "hahahah...mwahahahahhaha...HO HO HO!"
   
   And then he rides off into the sky with the jingling of sleigh bells.
   
   I mean, this involves severe animal cruelty and the actress portraying Rudolph's whimpering was really pitiable, so this would definitely win in the horror category for a lot of people, and it was well-told. abby_the_hairapist figured it out when the scientists talked about the hovering, whereas I figured out when the master appeared but before any of his lines. And then it was pretty obvious at the end.
   
   It was a great adaptation of an old story about how deviation from the norm will be ruthlessly ground down unless it can be exploited by the rich.

I was surprised that it wasn't as horror-inducing (almost said "horrible" but that's not what that means) as I was expecting. I guess it's down to what selections get picked, since there were two hundred submissions and they whittled it down to five. There were also horror-themed sponsor advertisements and some songs, though the only one I remember at all was a parody of "Santa Baby" involving asking Santa to come kill everyone on the singer's hit list. The MC also told perhaps the most horrible tale of the whole night during the moments when he needed to stall for time--the tale of the bedbugs he's dealing with in his apartment.

meowtima was also there, but he had a seat on the main floor, in the lettuce spray zone, so I only got to talk with him at intermission.

It was great! If I'm around I'll go again next year and see what the new offerings are, and this time I'll buy tickets earlier so I don't get the leavings or need to rely on worldbshiny.

This game caught me completely by surprise. I backed Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as soon as I became aware of it based mostly on the strength of the Kickstarter video--and apparently I backed a physical copy, so I guess I'll be getting that at some point in the future--but I haven't really been paying much attention to the updates. I rarely do, especially with games, because I don't want too many spoilers before I actually get to the game itself. So as it smashed through stretch goals and climbed up the Kickstarter rankings, I completely missed the "Free 2D, pixel-based, retro-styled prequel mini-game" that they promised. And then all of a sudden it came out at the end of the last month and it looked amazing.

It is amazing.


( Read more... )

​Dramatis Personae

• Antonio Abella, Italian Legal Assistant
  
• Dr. Conrad Nemeth, American Climate Scientist
  
• Ivy Davison, American Construction Worker
  
• Jean-Yves Laurent, French Army Officer

Jean-Yves searched Walters' room, checking to see if there was a reason other than murder why the assailant would have entered. As he crouched down, he saw something under the bed, and, shining a flashlight on it, he saw a figure of an arm drawn in red chalk. After he pointed it out, Milton rushed in, staring around in shock and gasping about murder and how terrible everything is. After a moment, Dr. Weiss the plastic surgeon arrived and offered to examine the rooms--alone.

Antonio opined that the doctor was guilty, but the said through the extremely-thin walls that he was not. After examining the rooms, he took Milton and the stewards down the hall to discuss the incident. Antonio followed as though he was looking for someone, but Jean-Yves walked down and said that as a member of the French military, in a situation with no other authority than the train staff, he should be included. The doctor agreed, and Jean-Yves called over Dr. Conrad and Ivy. Dr. Weiss said that the arms were removed post-mortem, and Walters put up a struggle. He also said that the killer was right-handed, wielding a knife, and probably known to the victims.

The group debated their action, arguing briefly about why no one had called for help or moved the train, and then suddenly they heard Morisa Ocana calling for help and saying that there had been another murder! They rushed into the dining car and found Wanda Ziegler standing over a body, face-down, missing its left leg. Jean-Yves looked around the dining car and found nothing, but as Ivy bent down and looked up, she saw a group of four guests in 20s or 30s clothing being served a bottle of dark-colored wine. The wine was poured, the guests toasted, and the they faded away. Dr. Weiss stood up and said the body was Enzo Banuelos, stabbed perhaps a few hours previously. Milton again said how terrible things were and suggested going up the line to get help, after which Jean-Yves took him outside and showed him the figures watching from the distance within the mist.

On the train, Milton said that one of the stewards had offered to walk up the line, and Ivy offered to accompany him. After a moment, so did Dr. Conrad and Antonio Abella. After some consideration, knowing he was the only one who had a firearm, Jean-Yves agreed to go as well. They headed out into the mist, walking along the line, into the mist. They saw no strange figures, and after ten minutes of walking, they came to a tunnel. Taking out their flashlights, they entered the tunnel. As they entered, they noticed that the darkness seemed to press down on their light, reducing the radius of the light. It seemed like the light was oppressed, getting squeezed, and there were sounds from around them. Faint cries, screams, strange echoes in the distance. After a long time in the darkness, they suddenly came on a brick wall blocking up the entire tunnel. Ivy examined it and said that it had been there for a while, but Antonio pointed out that it couldn't have been built between when the rest of the train left them behind and now.

Ivy suddenly heard the sound of marching boots. After trying to find a hiding spot and realizing there was no place to hide, the investigators waited for whatever was coming. After some time, a group of soldiers in greatcoats and fur hats, with rifles shouldered but not at the ready...and no faces. They gestured with their rifles at the other direction, and with no real choice, the group went back the way they came followed by the faceless soldiers. As they exited the tunnel, the soldiers took up positions across the mouth of the tunnel, standing guard, and Jean-Yves thought of the figures he had seen in the mist.

When they arrived back at the train, the sought out Milton and found him in the salon car along with several other people. They told him about the brick wall and the soldiers, causing gasps and murmurs among the crowd. They looked for the people who were missing, and when Ivy noticed Chantelle was missing, she went after her and found her in her compartment. She had been crying, and there was a note sitting near her sink.

DEAREST CHANTEL

MEET ME TODAY AT 6 P.M. IN THE FOREST

COME ALONE

PLEASE FORGIVE

THE NEED FOR SECRECY

I PROMISE THAT

ALL WILL BE REVEALED

Chantelle said she was planning to go, and Ivy suggested that other people had to come as well. She suggested Jean-Yves, since he was armed, and said she had to go to prepare. Then she returned to the salon car and showed Dr. Conrad and Jean-Yves the note. They decided to go get Chantelle, and as they stood to go, they car suddenly changed. It transforms into a medieval hall, lit with flickering torches, with an ornate throne in the distance and a man whose skin is sewn-together patches sitting on it. The man asked if they had a deal, but he wasn't speaking specifically to the investigators. Several of the other passengers panicked, or stood staring in shock, but Jean-Yves left the car and the others quickly followed.

There were a few people in the salon car, but none of them had seen Oscar Griffin or BJ recently. They went to BJ's room and checked, but found nothing. Next was Oscar's compartment, and when Antonio opened the door, they saw him laying face-down with his leg missing. Ivy gasped, and Jean-Yves went to summon the doctor. Jean-Yves returned with the doctor, and he examined the body. Dr. Weiss said that it was the same knife as the previous deaths, and that he did not understand why the mouth seemed to be sealed over with skin...but that it was no stranger than the tunnel behind the train being sealed by a brick wall. Dr. Weiss left, and the investigators looked for Milton but couldn't find him after a quick search. Then they looked for one of the stewards and told him about the chalk limb drawings, and suggested they check the other rooms. As they argued, suddenly they noticed something small moving in the hall, scurrying toward the group, and as the shapes drew closer the investigators noticed that they were hands! Then they leapt.

A struggle ensued, where the hands leapt on people's faces but didn't manage to do much damage before simply vanishing. The investigators searched the salon car but found nothing, and Jean-Yves climbed up on top of the train and found a stone torso, like a statue piece. He said he couldn't move it, but when Ivy climbed up to help, it vanished. Antonio checked Enzo's room and found a chalk leg, and then checked BJ's room and found a red chalk circle, almost like a head, under his bed. When Jean-Yves went to check his room, he found two people in it, one murdering the other! He drew his gun and pointed it, at the men, but realized by their dress and style that they were ghosts, and indeed, when the murder was done, the murderer walked toward Jean-Yves and vanished.

Jean-Yves, Dr. Conrad, and Ivy went to Chantelle's room and they left into the woods. The three of them hid in the trees near the appropriate spot and waited, watching as Chantelle waited for the writer, and Mark Wilson came out from behind a tree smiling. Chantelle reacted poorly to being stalked, and when Mark Wilson's expression grew cloudy and he drew a knife, Chantelle drew a derringer from her purse and fired. Mark Wilson ran, and though Ivy chased after him, she quickly lost him in the woods.

Antonio had followed them out to spy on them, and just as he decided to return tot he train, he saw movement in the bushes. He called out to it but got no answer, and approaching, he found BJ curled up in the bushes. BJ would not answer his entreaties, and Antonio reached out to him and managed to pull him to his feet and lead him back to the train. As the others approached the train, Dr. Conrad noticed a mound of something white or blue lying on the ground and found his shirt, bloody, in a heap. He took it and put it away, and they re-entered the train.

Antonio took BJ to see Dr. Weiss, who examined him and then treated his leg wound. Or tried to--when he went to the tap and turned it on, blood came out instead of water! After a moment of shock, Antonio turned off the tap, and the doctor said that the wound was a gunshot wound. Just a graze, and the doctor could not tell what kind of gun it was. He left and took BJ to the salon car. The others were already there, including Dr. Conrad, who had taken a detour to stuff the shirt in the bottom of his luggage. After seeing who else was there, they decided to check the rooms of the missing people. The first was Faustino, whose room was closed and locked. Mark Wilson's room was also locked, as was Milton's. After a short discussion, the investigators went to get the stewards and ask them to help determine whether the three others were okay, or even alive.

At that moment, a troupe of faceless Italian blackshirts entered the car and demanded everyone's credentials. But they seemed happy with the ID provided, even Jean-Yves' EU passport, and went on their way. Antonio left the car to avoid them and, as he exited the train, he saw something on the ground. He checked it, and found a set of limbs and head, with the torso missing, of a person, with a small journal next to it. Once he recovered his composure, he recognized Faustino Gonzaga, and grabbed the journal just as Ivy went to check on him.

Once they entered Antonio pulled everyone into the dining car and showed them the journal. Inside the cover was a label that it was the property of the National Library of France, and it was listed as the diary of the Countess Valentina Durnovo, describing a fantastic and horrific journey on the Orient Express and their fight against the Brothers of the Skin. At the end were two chants, both labeled "Ritual of the Cleansing," and one labeled "inaccurate version."

When they returned from the dining car, Milton was there, but Antonio realized that if he came from his room he must have come from the outside since he didn't pass them on the way in. The investigators explained the murder of Faustino and the entire crew discussed what to do. Milton seemed to want to leave, but Antonio pointed out that there might be the same situation the other direction. Eventually, they decided to pull everyone into the salon car and stay together, sleeping in shifts to guard against the murderer. Strange things happened during the night, and on the third shift, Milton, Jean-Yves, and Dr. Conrad were all awake together. Milton struck up a conversation, and eventually said he wanted to head to the bathroom. Dr. Conrad went with him, and after they left, Jean-Yves woke Ivy and Antonio and followed after them.

Milton left the bathroom, looked Dr. Conrad right in the eyes, and said "Pretend I'm still in the bathroom." As Dr. Conrad stood there, Milton went out past him. After some time, Jean-Yves looked in the window from the connecting car and saw Dr. Conrad standing there. After some berating, Jean-Yves checked the bathroom and found nothing, and after telling the others and arming themselves with kitchen knives, they searched the train. Milton's cabin's door was open, and almost everything was missing from it. Milton wasn't on the train, but Antonio found a set of tracks heading down the line toward the tunnel. They followed the tracks to the tunnel, and then they entered. They found Milton by the brick wall, conducting some sort of ritual, with several faceless guards. Antonio charged him, but went down under the bullets of the guards. As Jean-Yves provided first aid, Milton yelled:

"Come and see! The new dawn awaits!"

and jumped through. After a moment, the others followed.

They were in a large, dark space, illuminated by a ring of torches, with thick carpets everywhere. In the center was an altar and on it were a series of body parts, two arms, two legs, a torso...and the head of Mark Wilson. Milton was in the middle of a circle of blood with a serious wound in his stomach, and as they entered, he yelled at them to take their revenge. The investigators did not act, and after a moment, he looked at Dr. Conrad and ordered him to kill him. Despite Ivy and Jean-Yves's attempt to stop him, Dr. Conrad grabbed the knife that Milton had used and stabbed him. As Milton collapsed, the body parts on the altar rose into the air and came together into a horrific monster with eyes like black pits!

The investigators ran.

They found themselves in Istanbul, and alerted the police that they had seen strange activity in the city, but they did not stay around to see what the police found or what they did. When they checked the area later, they found no portal and no way to get back, and so they never learned what happened to the other people on the train...


Apparently if we had had more time at the end, Fennelik would have attacked, since the ghosts on board the train were re-enacting the memories of the faithful trip the 1920s investigators took as part of the ritual that Milton was enacting. And succeeded at, despite my efforts to prevent it from happening. 70% Brawl and I failed at my attempt to grab Dr. Conrad...

The ending was a bit anti-climactic, though I think a lot of that is that we were at the end of playtime. If it had happened with a couple hours left, we could have explored what the police found in the Shunned Mosque (for so it was), or tried to fight the flesh golem, or had to talk our way out of Turkey, or any number of things. But we only had a few minutes left, and so it ended. Sometimes, there's just no time.

And that's that for the entire Horror on the Orient Express game, from late 2015 to early 2018! Final thoughts in another post.

​Dramatis Personae

• Elena Costanza, British Agent of the Crown
  
• Luc Durand, French Professor of Linguistics
  
• Rosaline St. Clair, American Antiquities Dealer
  
• Valentina Durnovo, Russian Countess/Gentlewoman
  
• Yan Nikolaev, Bulgarian police inspector

​After taking the connecting train to London, the investigators disembarked. While the other passengers joked and laughed about the events, they were haunted by what they had seen, and by the continuing corruption of their bodies. As their luggage was being unloaded, the professor tossed a pound Sterling to a newsboy and snatched a paper out of his hands, quickly scanning it. He saw an article about a missing schoolmaster and showed the others.

After they read it, they noticed a scruffy man holding a sign that said "Mac Rat," and after a brief consultation, they approached him and told him that they were Mr. Mac Rat and yes, they were heading to 3 Brophy Lane, Islington. He loaded up their luggage and they all piled in and headed off. The cabbie was talkative, especially about the disappearances in the area, and the countess made polite conversation until they arrived at their destination, Makryat's Islington shop. The front door was locked, and after the professor searched the stoop and didn't find any spare keys, Yan walked around the back and, with a little effort, broke the lock and entered a rear storeroom. It was dim and dusty, but not obviously dangerous, and he walked to the front and let the rest of the investigators in. The shop was much the same as they remembered from two months previous, but disused. They turned on the lights and searched the front room, but found only Middle Eastern antiquities that, while genuine, had no occult function or power. After shoving a box in front of the door the made for the stairs, and the professor shown his flashlight at the ceiling...revealing a creature of flesh and bone, a twisted and misshapen devil, descending on them and snarling with the face of Beddows.

The countess began screaming at the top of her lungs as viscera splattered over Yan and Elena, burning them. The devil landed and hurled itself at Yan, who lashed out with his blackjack and hit it, smashing it into the wall and into a bloody ruin. As Yan and Elan ran up to wash off the ichor, the professor drew out the Mims Sahis and cut off the devil's head, then followed up the stairs.

In the office, the carpet had been rolled back and an intricate and subtly disturbing pattern had been carved into the floor. On the desk was a scroll, written in Arabic, that was obviously one of the Sedefkar Scrolls, and a note:

Master, as you suggested, the scroll must be present.

Next to that was another sheet, in English, what seemed to be a phonetic transcription of some sort of ritual. The professor immediately argued that this was too convenient, while Rosaline said that Makryat might need a little help, and they were still arguing when Yan said, "Who are you?" The professor and Rosaline approached and found a man, with a symbol carved in his forehead, shivering in a closet. He was unresponsive to anyone's entreaties, and when Yan pulled out his wallet and handed it to the countess, she read the name of Arthur Bowman, the missing schoolmaster.

The professor, still dubious, called the British Museum and asked them about a rush translation of a scroll in a jumble of Arabic and Turkish. The man he spoke to said that it might be some time, perhaps a day, and no, the professor could not speak to him as he was very busy. After a little more discussion, the professor hung up and went back to the room where the others had assembled the Simulacrum. They began arguing again about the propriety of the ritual, about whether it was the real thing or not, and about how it worked. Eventually, Yan picked up the paper and began to chant. Elena and Rosaline joined in, and the professor listened with a white-knuckled hand on the Mims-Sahis as the chant continued. After a few sentences, Elena blinked and her body began to shimmer and warp, and then she collapsed, dead! Over her body, coalescing into existence, they saw the form of Mehmet Makryat, skinless and hideous, with worms writhing in his flesh.

Rosaline demanded to know where the ritual was, and Makryat laughed, saying that the ritual was in the room all along and the transcription was a trap. The countess inched toward Mr. Bowman, but the professor asked him what he planned to do now, and with a laugh, Makryat called out, "You will see! Master! Skinless One! To me!"

He rushed at the party. Rosaline shot him with her rifle, but while she shot him, it didn't seem to have much effect. The countess ushered Mr. Bowman into the next room as Makryat rushed in and Rosaline hit him with her rifle. Yan rushed in with a knife, slicing away, and the professor fired but missed. The countess picked up a piece of the simulacrum and swung at Makryat, but missed. Yan and Makryat traded blows, and Makryat's claws ripped into Makryat, downing him. The professor dashed in and administered first aid while Rosaline and the countess rained blows on Makryat. Yan pulled out his revolver and fired, and the professor moved to attack and was slashed instead.

With that, the Skinless One arrived.

A giant man, with an eye in the middle of his forehead, skinless and gigantic. An aura of power surrounded it, and the investigators felt their skin itch. The countess collapsed on the floor and began wandering aimless around the room, and Rosaline collapsed to the floor, and Yan began frantically looking around. Only the professor was unaffected as Makryat screamed at the Skinless One to destroy the investigators.

None wears the Simulacrum.

Makryat began frantically grabbing the Simulacrum pieces and trying to put it on while the professor walked over to the countess, who was still holding the arm. She looked at the professor peacefully and said, "Flowers, for me?" The professor smiled at her, said, "You will have all the flowers you want," took the arm, and hurled it at the Skinless One.

The usurper is unworthy. My gift is sundered.

Makryat died immediately, collapsing like a doll with its strings cut, as the Skinless One snapped the arm in half. As Rosaline awoke, the professor picked up the leg and threw it as well, and they cooperated to throw the rest of the Simulacrum. As the Skinless One grabbed the head, faces flashes across it. Makryat, Professor Smith, Le Comte, Selim Makryat, Beddows, and all of their faces, before dispersing into dust. The Skinless One looked around and sunk into the floor, leaving a swirling vortex behind it. The dust of the Simulacrum was pulled into the vortex, as was the remaining scroll, and though the professor grabbed after it, even the Mims Sahis. The vortex closed, the room returned to normal, and it was finally over.

After taking Mr. Bowman to the hospital, the group dispersed almost immediately, traumatized over their experiences. Rosaline returned to America and her shop and finally married her fiancé, Yan returned to his wife and child (and lover), and the professor took the countess with him back to France. After arranging the finest sanitarium care for the countess, he resigned from his professorship at the Sorbonne and retired to his estate. He sent for books from shops far across the world, studying occult lore and things even more obscure. He spent long nights pouring over ancient tomes, brushing up on his Latin and Greek and Arabic, while his children worried about him and his old scholastic colleagues fell out of contact, until one night he vanished. He was never found, but his bequest kept the countess in excellent care for months until she too disappeared, from a locked room under observation by orderlies.

And finally, on a train platform outside the town of Ulthar beyond the river Skai, that quaint and curious city where no man may kill a cat, the two of them were reunited.

Annals of the Fallen

1. Gianni Abbadelli, Italian Vatican Parapsychologist, arm torn off by čudovište in Vinkovci, February 8th, 1923.
   
2. Demir Sadik, Turkish Revolutionary/Field Medic, devoured by the living lair of the Baba Yaga in the forests outside Orašac, February 13th, 1923.
   
3. Jazmina Moric, Croat Linguist, killed by a thrown grenade during a battle with the Butchers at Sofiiski Universet, February 15th, 1923.
   
4. Radovan Venclovic, Romani Ex-Soldier, driven to madness by the beast of flesh in the cemetery at Üsküdar, February 20th, 1923.
   
5. Elena Costanza, British Agent of the Crown, killed by Mehmet Makryat while performing the false ritual in Islington, February 23rd, 1923.
   
6. Valentina Durnovo, Russian Countess/Gentlewoman, driven to madness by the Skinless One in Makryat's shop in Islington, February 23rd, 1923.

I'm glad that at the end, I kept the professor's habit of staring down beings of incredible potency that started with the undead sorcerer in the Dreamlands. Thanks to the Mythos hardening he underwent last session, he only lost 4 SAN when seeing the Skinless One rather than 8 and so kept the presence of mind to throw the arm of the Simulacrum.

Poor countess lost 70 SAN and only had 38 or so.

schoolpsychnerd kept saying that the professor and the countess should get married if we both survived, and if we had I was planning a more tragic ending where the professor disappeared one night and went off to become a cult leader and continue the cycle of worshippers of the Great Old Ones. But since the tragedy had already occurred, I wanted to find a happy ending. I had already told mutantur several times over the course of the game that the professor spent time at night trying to find his way back into the Dreamlands, and I knew that Henri's Dreamlands Express was a place of healing and that the professor knew that Henri himself proved that it was possible for people to live on in the Dreamlands after death. So while his descendants probably have stories about mad grand-père Luc who vanished and was never seen again, he and the countess work on the Dreamlands Express together with Henri in a place where their old sorrows can no longer touch them. It's actually a better ending than they would have gotten otherwise, I think.

Normally I'd post my thoughts about the whole game, but we're not done! The re-release of the campaign adds an additional post-game scenario set in 2013, so we're going to take a brief break while I run a DELTA GREEN interlude and then play that game, and then I'll finally have played through all of Horror on the Orient Express! But for now, I'll leave the professor and the countess to their happiness.

​Dramatis Personae

• Elena Costanza, British Agent of the Crown
  
• Luc Durand, French Professor of Linguistics
  
• Rosaline St. Clair, American Antiquities Dealer
  
• Valentina Durnovo, Russian Countess/Gentlewoman
  
• Yan Nikolaev, Bulgarian police inspector

That evening, the investigators discussed their plans. They couldn't report Makryat to the authorities--even if they were believed, it would delay the train and exceed the hundred hour time limit--and they eventually decided to question Doña del Garda's maid about her habits and, perhaps, be able to search her room and see if Makryat had left anything incriminating or useful there. The professor went to talk to Rama Ho-Tet about the Sapieta Maglorum, and after introducing himself and speaking about their travels, and the professor admitting that his Arabic was not so good, the Egyptian agreed to try his hand at translation, saying it would pass the time. As he was taking, Jackie Gattling the gossip columnist came to talk to Rosaline and the countess, asking them for gossip and saying that she had arranged an exclusive interview with the Doña in her compartment. After Jackie left, the the group discussed what to do, and decide that they had to prevent the meeting from occurring.

In Belgrade, as they pulled up, they noticed a small white house, incongruously sitting among some other ramshackle houses. As they disembarked, a swarm of black chickens suddenly descended on them from nowhere, pecking and scratching! The investigators piled back onto the train, other than Yan, who looked at the others strangely and then walked up and down looking at the train. Before he returned, he went to a haberdashery and bought two ladies' hats. As the train pulled away from the station, the party noticed further degeneration occurring.

At dinner, the maître d'hôtel seated an old woman with the party, and after a moment, they realized that she looked very familiar. "Grandmother" looked at their food and it turns tasteless and cold, and both Rosaline and Yan left the room. As Rosaline left, she saw the Baba Yaga waiting in the hallway outside her room. Rosaline told her that the investigators didn't have what she sought, it the Baba Yaga did not reply. The countess heard the noise and opened the door and found the Baba Yaga staring straight at her, and the professor called over the maître d'hôtel and asked him who the woman was. As the countess slammed the door, the maître d'hôtel said that she was "the duchess," refused to give her full title, and repeated that she was definitely a passenger who had a place on the train. The investigators could not tell what she wanted and she did not disappear, but as the professor looked out the window and saw the shape of the terrible creature, the Walker in the Woods, he realized that the Baba Yaga could harass them, and could confuse them, but could not harm them. He looked into the Baba Yaga's eyes and calmly took a few bites of his food.

The professor left the dining room, drawing forth the Elder Sign and presenting it at the Baba Yaga in the hallway and trying to force his way past her, but overwhelming fear filled his heart and he could not muster up the will to do so. And eventually, he gave up and they retired to the salon car. After some time, Yan left and used the bathroom door to sneak into the countess's room, where she was hiding under the covers. He retrieved her, they left through the bathroom connecting door, and the investigators convened in the salon car. After a moment, Yan left to go sneak into the fourgon, and the professor wrote a note to Elena Constanza, asking her to meet them in the salon car.

Outside, Yan clambered onto the top of the train in the bright moonlight. He leapt from car to car, passing toward the front of the train, until he reached the fourgon. He couldn't see any guards, but he didn't know their schedules, and he took a moment to watch until he decided it was too risky and returned to the sleeping car. Elena came to speak to the professor and the ladies, and she agreed to keep watch on Jackie Gattling and then left. Moments later, the countess and Rosaline returned to the countess's compartment, but Jackie wasn't there. The countess resolved to remain awake. Rosaline, the professor, and Yan went to sleep.

Yan woke up when the train pulled into Zagreb, and saw a figure in a black cloak holding something white and standing on the platform. As he drew closer, he realized that it was just a porter in a greatcoat gnawing on a loaf of bread, and reboarded and went back to sleep. But in the dead of night, something attacked each investigator separately! Tiny, flapping, fleshy things, like crawling hands, that clambered onto their beds and attacked, covering their mouths and trying to suffocate them!

Yan easily took care of his beast and burst into the hallway as did the countess, clawing at the skin beast on her own face. The conductor, seeing a problem, got up and stared moving toward them as the professor also staggered out of his room clawing at his own assailant, but Yan cut it off his face. He also freed the countess, and then burst into Rosaline's room as she fell unconscious and removed her own skin beast. The conductor, shaken, asked that they come to the salon car and have brandy and discuss what happened. Once there, the professor demanded that the doctor be summoned, excoriating the conductor for how passengers on the Orient Express were attacked in their beds. The apologetic conductor summoned the doctor and, after the investigators' wounds were treated, he said that everyone was in their bed and safe. Rosaline asked about Jackie, and the conductor says the steward said she was safe, but the investigators checked themselves. Jackie was in her compartment, moaning "they came for me, they came for me" over and over, and when the countess examined her, she found six star-shaped lumps of flesh missing from her torso.

At this point, Elena called them into the salon and told them her secret mission. She knew that a man named Makryat was planning to kill the Prince of Wales, and asked them what they knew. After a moment, the professor explained about the Brotherhood of the Skin, about Makryat the sorcerer, and that his plan was probably not to assassinate the prince, but replace him. Elena was doubtful, but after having seen the skin beasts, she believed them. At the Italian border, Jackie was taken off by a doctor, and as the professor poked his head into the salon car, Anton Szorbic pulled them aside and said that he knew they were looking for a killer and he believed that Groening was the killer. He was disappointed at their lack of immediate action, and eventually stalked away.

The investigators slept undisturbed for the rest of the night.

In the morning, the professor noticed another murder in Islington written about in the newspaper, and that neither the Doña nor her maid were at breakfast. After breakfast, the countess went and knocked on the Doña's door. A conductor stopped her and told her that the Doña and her maid had disembarked at Ljubljana, which the professor confirmed with Lord Margrave. They tried to observe Groening and Szorbic, but they didn't see either of them for some time, and when Rosaline asked a conductor, he stated that he didn't think that either of them had disembarked. Yah knocked on Groening's door, and when Rama Ho-Tet answered the door, the Egyptian said that he hadn't seen Groening in some time, and that he was having a lovely time translating the professor's book. Yan then went to Szorbic's door and asked him. Szorbic was curt, but said that he hadn't seen Groening and in the process revealed that he remembered the conversation from the previous night, and Yan thanked him and returned to the salon car. On the way, he heard from a conductor that Groening had disembarked at Trieste.

That evening, the train departed Milan and steamed up into the mountains. As they were sitting in the salon car, Rosaline saw a fireman laying motionless on the tracks. After she told the others, the track curved, and they saw the locomotive moving ahead ringed with a glowing, white-blue nimbus. Almost immediately, the train began to pick up speed, jolting and shaking, and the investigators knew they had to check out the engine. The professor, countess, and Rosaline try to ask the fourgon guards what is happening, and the conductor asks a steward, but it quickly becomes obvious that they are on edge and don't actually know. Yan and Elena climbed on the train and walked over the fourgon to the locomotive where they heard voices from the cabin. Yan and Elena crept closer to listen as they heard what may have been chanting, and saw five Italians in the cabin, cleaning up various accoutrements. Yan and Elena debated what to do, and decided to attack. From surprise, as the Simplon Tunnel approached, Elena and Yan opened fire.

Annals of the Fallen

1. Gianni Abbadelli, Italian Vatican Parapsychologist, arm torn off by čudovište in Vinkovci, February 8th, 1923.
   
2. Demir Sadik, Turkish Revolutionary/Field Medic, devoured by the living lair of the Baba Yaga in the forests outside Orašac, February 13th, 1923.
   
3. Jazmina Moric, Croat Linguist, killed by a thrown grenade during a battle with the Butchers at Sofiiski Universet, February 15th, 1923.
   
4. Radovan Venclovic, Romani Ex-Soldier, driven to madness by the beast of flesh in the cemetery at Üsküdar, February 20th, 1923.

We finally did something! Well, some of us. Maybe the rest of us should have also gone over the train cars to attack, but the professor is the only one with a gun and his pistol skill is only 20%. I'm not sure it would have made that much of a difference.

mutantur thought we'd get done today, but he underestimated the ability of player characters to faff around and accomplish nothing. Next time, we finish this business on the train!

...maybe

​Super!

This is another game that I first heard about through Nintendo Power. I never played it, though I do remember Simon's eight-direction whip swinging so I must have seen it at someone's house somewhere. You can tell it made a strong impression on me.

Super Castlevania IV was originally intended to be in the style of the original Castlevania, and in Japanese it even has the exactly same title--悪魔城ドラキュラ (Akumajō Dorakyura). But it has expanded levels, even more bosses, more control of Simon on stairs and through whipping, the enhanced graphics and level design that the SNES was capable of, SNES-quality music, infinite continues, and other quality-of-life improvements.

I'm not that impressed in the end.


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